Printing and associating mechanism



" Oct. 8,- 1935. A. M. ZUCKERMAN 2,015,309

PRINTING AND ASSOCIATING MECHANISM I 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 mvl-zu-ron %wm af;

Oct. 8, 1935. A. M. ZUCKERMAN PRINTING AND ASSOCIATING'MECHANIL M FiledApril 7, 1932 5 Sheets-Shem 5%1 INVENTOR.

Oct. 8, 1935.

A M. ZUCKERMAN PRINTING AND ASSOCIATING MECHANISM 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 FiledApril 7, 1932 Q E m Ob I W \Jr b I O O I a m ww 3 m. o No 0 o OW o o 0.Q@ 0 o W 0 NW 0 WW 0 o o 0 Q0 J r W m Q Q Oct. 8, 1935. A. M. ZUCKERMANPRINTING AND ASSOCIATING MECHANISM Filed April 7, 1932 .5 Sheets-Sheet 4INVENTOR ot.s,-1935. *AMZ CKERMMJ 2,016,309

PRINTING AND ASSOCIATING MECHANISM Filed April 7 1952 5 Sheets-Sheet 5Patented Oct; 8, 1935 PATENT OFFICE,

' 2,016,309 I n n n PRINTING AND AssocrA'rmGrmonmsM Adolph M. Zuckerman,New York, N. Y., assignor to R. Hoe & 00., Inc., New York, N. Y., acorporation of New York; Irving Trust Company,

permanent trustee Application April 7, 1932, serial #603,751:

Claims (01. 270-11 This invention relates to certain improvements inprinting'and associating mechanism.

In the production of certain types of printed products, such asperiodicals, pamphlets and the like, it may be desirable to produce aproduct of a plurality of associated signatures which are separatelyprinted and which differ from each other in kind or character, andapamphlet or the like in which such differing signatures are assembled inthe final product in a predetermined order. For instance, it may bedesirable to produce a product made up of different colored signatures,as, for instance, a signature printed on pink paper, a signature printedon, yellow paper, and a signature printed on white paper, these, beingassociated or collated in suchrorder to make up or produce the finaldesired product. It is the especial object of the present invention toprovide an associating mechanismby which signatures printed by differentprinting units in different colors or of different kinds or charactersand from different width webs may be collated or associated, eithercollected or'not, in a predetermined order and then delivered, so thatthe necessity of manual gathering or the use of separate gatheringmachines for effecting such association is done away with.

A further object of the invention is to provide an associating mechanismby which such products may be produced at high speeds and in which themechanism employed is of simple character and few parts, and which canbe readily manipulated or adjusted to produce the'products required. l

' With these and other objectsnot specifically referred to inview, theinvention consists in certain novel parts, arrangements and combinationswhich "will be described in connection with the accompanying drawingsand the novel features pointed out in the claims hereunto annexed.

In these drawings,-

Figure 1 is a, side elevation of a printing mechanism capacitated toprint a plurality of products of different characters; v c

Figure 2 is an end elevation of one form of the improved associatingmechanism by which the objects of the invention may be effected;

Figure 3 is a diagrammatic view, on an enlarged scale and more indetail, of the associating mechanism shown in Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a side elevation of a modified press arangement for printingfour webs to produce four differing productsy Y I Figure 5 is an endelevation of the associating mechanism embodying the invention which may.beused with the printing machine of Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a diagrammatic view, on an enlargedscale and more in detail,of the associating mechanism shown in Figure 5 for associating theproducts on the printing machine shown in Figure 4; c

. Figure 7 is a diagrammatic view of a modification of the associatingmechanism shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3, and c t Figure 8 isa diagrammaticview of another modification of thesame associatingmechanism.

Generally speaking, the invention consists in the provision of aprinting mechanism capacitated to print and perfect a pluralityofgwebsto 1 produce signatures or products which may be different incharacter, andin combination with I an associating mechanism by whichthe diifering products from the press may be associated in apredetermined order without manual gathering or handling, thisassociating mechanism being capacitated to produce either collected ornon-, collected products, or a combination of both, as may be desired,and an associating mechanism in which the, parts are capacitated tohandle a 25 large number of webs without unduly increasing the size ofthe mechanism used for effecting the desired association of theproducts.

.In the drawings, two constructions illustrating preferred embodimentsof the inventionare shown and will now be described in detail. Re-

,ferring first to Figures 1; to 3, inclusive, there is shown a printingmachine capacitatedto produce three differing signatures or products,that is, the machine shown is capacitated to print and perfect threeseparate. webs, the products from which may be associated or collatedin-a predetermined sequence or order.

Referring to Figure ,1, the printing mechanism is showndiagrammatically, as this may be of anysuitable type As illustrated,there is shown nism B is capacitated to print and perfect a web W whichmaybe of yellow paper; superposed above the mechanism B is a thirdprinting mechanism C, including a printing couple 9 and a perfectingcouple Ill, the form cylinders of which are inked by suitable inkingmechanisms ll, l2. This printing mechanism prints on a web W which maybe of another colored paper, as pink.

It will be understood that while the webs are described as of differentcolored papers to produce products of differing characters otherproducts of different characters may be produced by suitably arrangingthe-matter printed by the different printing units of the printingmachine. It will be understood therefore that the invention will includethe product of such differing products or signatures.

It .will be understood also that the webs w, W

and W may be full rolls or rolls of less width, such as three-quarter orhalf width, depending upon the particular product it is desired toproduce. Where wide webs are used, these webs may be slit and to effectthis the webs are car-' ried from the printing mechanisms over webguides l3, I4, 15 to slitting mechanisms l6, l1, l8,

- by which they may be slit into webs or ribbons of the desiredwidth.

Cooperating with this printing mechanism is an associated mechanism ofnovel arrangement, whereby the products from each of the web may beassociated or collated in the predetermined order desired, and thecollated products delivered to any suitable or desired delivery. Thisassociated mechanism will, in its preferred construction, also includecollecting devices, so that if desired the products from the webs may becollected to produce a signature having the desired or required make-up.This associating mechanism, however, will include a plurality of cuttingand collecting mechanisms, where collecting mechanisms are used, one foreach web from the press, by which the webs may be cut into desiredproduct lengths, and an associating or collating mechanism common to allthe cutting and collecting devices, so that the products from all thecutting and collecting mechanisms may be collated or associated into asingle product.

The cutting, collecting and associating devices may, of course, varywidely in their specific construction, but a convenient one is thatshown.

' Referring to Figures 2 and 3, the webs from each shown in the form ofa cylinder 25. This collecting cylinder may be of any suitable type, butin the particular construction shown is a three-part cylinder havingthree collecting surfaces a, b, c, on which the products are collectedin the usual manner and folded off to a folding and transfer,

mechanism hereinafter referred to.

' The collecting cylinder 25 is provided with sheet taking devices whichare shown" as the usual double gripper mechanism, comprising long andshort grippers 26, three sets of these long and short grippers beingprovided. The gripping elements of these are so arranged that the shortgrippers of each set take the product, whioh'is then engaged by the longgrippers, the short grippers becoming disengaged thereafter, and, whencollecting, the second product is laid over the first product andengaged by the short grippers, and

the sequence is repeated, as is common practice 5 in the art. Thecollecting cylinder 25 is also provided with tucking blades 21, three ofthese blades being shown, which act to tuck off the collected product tothe folding and transfer mechanism which will now be described. While 10this mechanism may be of various characters, in the particularconstruction illustrated it is in, the form of a cylinder 28 providedwith a plurality of sets of nipping laws 29 into the bite of which thefolding blades 21 of cylinder 25 tuck 15 ,the products thereon, thusgiving these'products similar character as that alreadydescribed, and30- so the remainder of such mechanisms will be but briefly referred to.

The web W, after\ being printed and perfected, is led over suitableturner bars 30 and guide rolls 3| to forwarding and associating rolls 3235 and then to cooperating and cutting cylinders 33, 34, and to afolding and collecting cylinder 35, from which the collected productsare taken by a folding and transfer cylinder 38 and transferred to theassociating mechanism. 40'.

Similarly the web W", after being divided into four ribbons, passes oversuitable turner bars 31 and guide-rolls 38 to'and between a pair ofassociating rolls 39, 40. From these associating rolls, the web, passesto a pair of cooperating cutting cylinders ll, 42, and fromthese to acollecting andfolding cylinder 43, similarto the cylinders 25 and 36,before referred to, from which the collected products are folded oil toa folding and transfer-cylinder N, which in turn delivers the productsto the associating. mecha nism which will now be described. I M

It, of course, will be understood that while grippers are ilustrated asthe sheet taking devices employed on the collecting cylindersfor takingthe sheets, if desired, pins may be substituted for the grippers. Itwill be observed that with this arrangement a wide variety in theproduction of signatures or products may be produced, as such productsmay be collected or noncollected as desired, and different arrangementsmay be made by silencing certain of the sheet taking andfolding devices.

While the specific details of construction of the associating mechanismmay be varied, such asso- 55 to all the cutting and collectingmechanisms this may be arranged to occupy a relatively small amount ofspace in the press-room, which is a feature of great practicaladvantage.

Under some circumstances, it may be desirable to produce larger ordifferent products from that shown in the construction described, and amodified arrangement embodying the invention is.

shown in Figures 4 to 6.

Referring now to these figures, there is illustrated in Figure 4 a fourunit printing machine adapted to print on four webs W W, W and W.

These printing units are indicated by the letters D, E, F and G. Theconstruction of these printing units may be the same as that alreadydescribed,

that is, each including a printng couple 8 and a' cooperating perfectingcouple 49. Further, these printing units may print on full width websorwebs less than full width, and the products from these webs, as in theother construction described, maybe slit by suitable slitting mechanisms50, 5 I,

' 52 and 53, from which the slit webs or ribbons may be led to theassociating mechanism.

Where a large number of webs, such as would be produced by the printingmachine of Figure 4 are to be assembled into pamphlet or magazine formwith a predetermined arrangement of the signatures, a somewhat modifiedarrangement of cutting, collecting, folding and associating mechanism isemployed from that previously described in connection with Figures 1, 2and 3, and such an arrangement is diagrammatically illustrated in Figure6. It will be understood, however, that whilethis arrangement may varyto some extent there will be provided a cutting and collecting mechanismfor each of the webs or ribbons slit from each web and an associatingmechanism which is common to all the cutting and collecting mechanisms.Thus the web W is forwarded to a pair of cutting cylinders 54, 55, whichcooperate with a collecting and folding cylinder 56, from which theproducts are folded off to a folding and transfer. cylinder 51 fromwhich they are delivered to associating mechanism hereinafter referredto. Similarly the web W is forwarded to a pair of cutting cylinders 58,59, which cooperate with a collecting and folding cylinder 60 from whichthe products are folded off to a folding and transfer cylinder 6 I,which in turn delivers to the associating mechanism. a

The web W is forwarded to a pair of cutting cylinders 62, 63 cooperatingwith a folding and collecting cylinder 64 which folds off the product toa folding and transfer cylinder 65, which in turn, through connectionshereinafter referred to, delivers the product to the associatingmechanism.

The web W is forwarded to a pair of cutting cylinders 66, 61, whichcooperate with a folding and collecting cylinder 68, which in turn foldsoff the collected product to a folding and transfer cylinder 89.

In the particular construction illustrated in Figure 6, the folding andtransfer cylinders 51 and Bi deliver directly to the associatingmechanism which is shown in the form of a cylinder 10. While, ifdesired, this cylinder 10 may be large enough to directly cooperate withall the folding and transfer cylinders 51, BI, 65 and, such a cylinderwould necessarily be so large as to be impractical on account of thespace it would take up. In the modification shown in Figure 6 therefore,this cylinder is made of the usual size and cooperates with a secondtransfer cylinder H which receives the product from the folding and 1transfer cylinders 65 and 69 and which acts to associate, the productstaken thereby with the products on the cylinder Ill received from thefolding and transfer cylinders 51 and GI, so that the combined productsmay bedelivered by the cylinder III to any suitable delivery, as tapes,indicated at 12.

Where the construction used in Figure 6 is adopted, a slightmodification in the sheet taking devices by which the sheets are handledmay be 2 advantageously used. As shown, one of each of the pairs ofcutting cylinders is provided with sheet taking pins l3, 14, whichtransfer the cut products to pins 15 on the collecting and foldingcylinders.

These folding and collecting cylinders are, as shown three-partcollecting cylinders, as heretofore described, and are providedwithfolding blades 16 cooperating with nipping jaws 11 in cylinders 51, BI,65 and 69. '30- The transfer cylinder II and the associating cylinder 10are provided with the usual sheet taking devices in the form of long andshort grippers 18; The parts of the mechanism may be supportedinsuitable framing and driven in any suit- 5- able manner, the driveforthe press and other mechanism having been omitted for the sake ofclearness, and as unnecessary for an understanding of the invention.

Various modifications in the construction and sociated withoutcollecting, or some may be collected and others not collected, and thenumber of collections in each group may be varied, by proper arrangementand timing of the collecting mechanism, where used.

While, furthermore, in both constructions descrlbed above the productsfrom each web are folded before being associated with the otherproducts, it is within the scope of this invention to cut and collectthe cut sheets from each web separately without folding them, thenassociate all of them in the form of loose sheets and fold themafterwards.

It is also within the scope of thisinvention to cut, collect, fold andassociate the various products as described above and give the totalprodnot an additional fold before delivering.

It is also within the scope of this invention, by a suitable arrangementof web guides, to combine the ribbons from all webs into a series ofgroups, without keeping the ribbons from each web separate; out, collectand fold each group separately and then associate the products of allthe groups. 5

Certain of these modifications have been shown in Figures 7 and 8.

Figure 7 shows a modification of the associating mechanism illustratedin Figures 1, 2 and 3. In this arrangement, the products associated byand on the associating cylinder 45 are not delivered directly to apackerbox, but are given an additional fold beforedelivery. While this foldcan be either longitudinal or transversejFigure 7 shows a longitudinalfolding mechanism embodying-a chopper blade 19 and a pair of foldingroilers 80, to which the associated products areforwarded from thecylinder 45 by means offorwarding rollers BI, 82, 83, 8.4-and 85. Fromthe folding rollers 80, the folded productsare delivered to a packer box86.

Figure 8 shows another modification of the use sociating mechanismswhich may be used. In this arrangement, the product groups are'notfolded before being associated, but are forwarded to the associatingcylinder in the form of groups of unfolded sheets. After these groups ofsheets are associated, they are given one or more folds, longitudinallyor transversely, as desiredyan'd are then delivered.

As illustrated in Figure 8, the ribbons ,W are cut by a pair of cuttingcylinders 91, 88 and then forwarded to a collecting cylinder 89; in asimillar' manner ribbons W are cut by a pair of cutting cylinders 90, 9|and forwarded to a collecting cylinder 92, and ribbons W are cut by apair of cutting cylinders 93, 94 and forwarded to a collecting cylinder95. These collecting cylinders 89, 92 and 95 collect the products in thesame manner as described above, but when non-collected productsarehandled function merely as transfer cylinders. I

From these collecting cylinders, the products are taken by anassociating cylinder 96 provided with sets of longand short grippers 91and operating substantially as previously described. The associatingcylinder 96 is also provided with tucking blades 98 cooperating withjaws 99 in a folding cylinder I00, by means of /which 'the associatedproducts are given a transverse fold" before being forwarded to a beltdelivery ilfll.

It will be seen that with the construction shown and described a veryefficient printing and associating mechanism has been produced which iscapable of producing a wide range of products and assembling thesignatures making up these products in any desired predeterminedrelation, and

" that, furthermore, the mechanism can be arranged to occupy arelatively small space. It will be understood, however, that themechanisms shown and described have been selected as illustrative of theinvention only, and that theseparticular arrangements and the particularcon struction of the various mechanisms may be varied within certainlimits withoutdeparting from the invention as defined in the appendedclaims.

What is claimed is:

1. In an associating mechanism, the combination of means for producing aplurality of products having differing characteristics, a plurality ofcutting, mechanisms, one foreach kind of product, a plurality ofcollecting cylinders, one for each kind of product, transfer and foldingcylinders, one for each collecting cylinder, and an associating cylindercommon to all the folding cylinders by which all the products from thefolding cylinders may be associated in a predetermined relation.-

2. In an associating mechanism, the combination of means for producing aplurality of prod-' ucts having differing characteristics, a pluralityof cuttingmechanisms, one for each kind of 1 product, to which theproducts may be guided in a predetermined relation, a plurality ofcollect- "i'ii'gcylinders, one for each cutting mechanism,

transferand folding cylinders, one for each collecting cylinder, anassociating cylinder receiving certain of the products directly from thefold ing cylinders, and a transfer cylinder receiving products fromcertain of the folding cylinders and transferring such products to theassociating cylinder.

, 3. In a printing and associating mechanism,

the combination of a machine capacitated to print on four webs toproduce differing products,

ucts having different characteristics, a plurality 20 of cuttingcylinders, two coacting cutting cylinders being provided for each kindof product, an associating cylinder separate from-the cutting cylindersand common to all the cutting cylinders to which the products areforwarded and associated 25 in a predetermined relation, and means fortransversely folding the products before association. and a cylindercoacting with the associating cylinder to transversely fold the productsafter association. 30

5. In an associating mechanism, the combination of means for producing aplurality of products having different characteristics, a plurality ofcuttingmechanisms, one such mechanism being provided for each kind ofproduct, an asso- 85 ciating cylinder separate from and common to allthecutting mechanisms to which the products are forwarded and associated ina predetermined relation, means for folding the products transverselybefore association, and a cylinder coact- 40 ing with the associatingcylinder to transversely fold all or selected products afterassociation.

6. In an associating mechanism, the combination of means for producing aplurality of products having-different characteristics, a plurality 45of cutting "mechanisms, a plurality of collecting mechanisms,onelcutting and one collecting mechanism being provided for each kind ofproduct, an associating cylinderseparate from and common to all thecutting and collecting mechanisms 5 to which the products are forwardedand associated in a predetermined relation, and means for transverselyfolding the. products before association, and a cylinder coasting withthe associating cylinder to fold all or selected products afterassociation. I

7. Ina printing and associating mechanism, the combination of means forproducing a plurality of products having different characteristics. aplurality of cutting mechanisms, one such 50 mechanism being providedfor each kind of prodnot, an associating mechanism separate from andcommon to all the cutting mechanisms to which the products are forwardedand associated in a predetermined relation, and a collecting and a5transfer cylinder coacting with the associating mechanism fortransversely folding the products before association.

8. In a printing and associating mechanism, the combination of means forproducing a plurality of products having different characteristics,

a plurality of groups of cutting, collecting and folding cylinders, eachgroup containing a folding cylinder coactingly engaged with a separateand common associating cylinder and adapted to v transversely fold theproducts prior to association, and other means connected to and coactingwith the said associating cylinder for effecting a further folding ofproducts after association.

9. In a printing and associating mechanism, the combination of aprinting machine capacitated to print a. plurality of webs to producedifferent products, means for dividing each web into separate ribbons,means for associating the ribbons of each web, a cutting and collectingmechanism for the associated ribbons of each web, and an associatingcylinder separate from and common to all the cutting and collectingmechanisms by which all the products therefrom may be associated inpredetermined relation.

10. In a printing and associating mechanism, the combination of aprinting machine capacitated toprint a pluralityof webs to producedifferent products, means for dividing each web into 1 separate ribbons,means for associating the ribbons of each web, a cutting, collecting andfolding mechanism for the associated ribbons of each web, and anassociating cylinder separate from and common to all the cutting,collecting and folding mechanisms by which all the products therefrommay be associated in predetermined relation.

11. In a printing and associating mechanism, the combination of aprinting mechanism capacitated to print a plurality of webs to producedifferent products, means for dividing each web into separate ribbons,means for associating the ribbons of each web, a cutting mechanism forsimultaneously cutting the ribbons of each web, a collecting and foldingmechanism for the ribbons of each web, and an associating cylinderseparate from and common to and coacting with all the folding mechanismsby which all the products therefrom may be associated in predeterminedrelation.

12. The method of producing associated printed products, which consistsin separately printing each web of a plurality of webs, dividing eachweb into separate ribbons, associating the ribbons of each web insuperposed relation, simultaneously cutting the ribbons of each web,fold ing the ribbons of each web, and associating all the folded ribbonsof all the webs by a separate and common instrumentality.

13. The method of producing associated printed products, which consistsin separately printing each web of a plurality of webs, dividing eachweb into separate ribbons, associating the ribbons of each web insuperposed relation, simultaneously cutting the ribbons of each web,collectingand folding the ribbons of each web, and associating all thefolded ribbons of all the webs by a separate and common instrumentality.

14. In a printing and associating mechanism, the combination of aprinting machine capacitated to print a plurality of webs to producedifferent products, means for dividing each web into separate ribbons,separate means for asso- 5 ciating the ribbons of each web, separatecooperating cutting cylinders for simultaneously cut- 7 ting'the ribbonsof each web into sheets, a separate collecting cylinder for collectingthe sheets cut from the ribbons of each web, a separate 10 foldingcylinder for folding the sheets cut from theribbons of each web, and aseparate common associating cylinder for associating in predeterminedrelation the sheets cut from the ribbons of all of the webs. I 15. In aprinting and associating mechanism, the combination of a printingmachine capacitated to print a plurality of webs to produce differentproducts, means for dividing each web into separate ribbons, separatemeansfor associating the ribbons of each'web, separate cooperatingcutting cylinders for simultaneously cutting the ribbons of each webinto sheets, a separate collecting cylinder for collecting the sheetscut from theribbons of each web, a separate common associating cylinderfor associating in predeter mined relation the sheets cut from theribbons of all of the webs, and a folding mechanism for folding all thesheets associated by the common associating cylinder. I

16. In a printing and associating mechanism, the combination of aprinting machine capacitated to print a plurality of webs to producedifferent products, means for dividing each web into separate ribbons,means for associating the 85 ribbons of each web, separate cooperatingcutting cylinders for simultaneously cutting the ribbons of each webinto sheets, a separate collecting cylinder for collecting the sheetscut from the ribbons of each web, a separate folding mechanism fortransversely folding the sheets cut from the ribbons of each web, aseparate common associating cylinder for-associating in predeterminedrelation the sheets cut from the ribbons of all the webs; and a foldingmechanism for longitudinally folding all the sheets associated by thecommon associating cylinder.

17. In a printing and associating mechanism, the combination of aprinting machine capacitated to print a plurality of webs to producedifferent products, means for. dividing each web into separate ribbons,means for associating the ribbons of each web, separate collecting andfolding mechanisms for the ribbons of each web,

7 and a separate associating cylinder common to all the collecting andfolding mechanisms for associating all the products from the webs.

, ADOLPH M. ZUCKERMAN.

